I attended an interesting webinar on conducting surveys today, led by a colleague in the NHS. I learnt several useful things that I was able to put to good use immediately here.
In 2022, our largest local housing association, Moat Homes, conducted a survey of residents to find out how to improve services and community work amongst local partners. Today I discovered that for a population of just under 2,000 people, which is approximately the number living on the Pollards Hill estate, a sample size of 320 is recommended in order to draw meaningful conclusions. The sample survey by the company working for Moat was 308, so slightly under the recommended reliable number and we should therefore treat the results with some caution.
One survey question revealed that only 36% of the sample (111 people) said that they used ‘Commonside Community Centre’. 15% used it weekly, 11% monthly and 10% less frequently than monthly. If you apply 36% to the total population that means that 676 people on the estate use the Centre. And ‘676 people’ sounds quite positive, whereas ‘only 36% use the Centre’ doesn’t, somehow so context matters.
We have to be cautious with applying this figure to the whole estate though, not only because the sample size is too small to draw reliable conclusions, but also because of the way the survey was conducted. We do not know how much self-selection there was amongst those who did take part, and this matters, because those who volunteer to answer questions about something usually do this because they have a strong opinion about it and this can often be quite negative! How often have you heard someone say ‘oh yes! I’ve got something to say about THAT!’.
My major stumbling block with this report being presented as strong evidence, however, is much more basic. It is this: the phrase ‘Commonside Community Centre’ is hardly, if ever used! People know us as ‘Commonside’, ‘Commonside Trust’ or ‘the New Horizon Centre’. So if people were asked how often, if ever, they visited the ‘Commonside Community Centre’ I’m surprised we got any positive answers at all! I recently checked my hunch against the monthly stats that we get showing us who uses our website (https://commonside.net if you would like to!). The top phrases used to find us on a search engine were:
- Pollards Hill Community Centre
- Commonside
- Commonside Community Development Trust
- New Horizon Centre
None of the above means that the work done on this report was useless – it certainly gives us some useful pointers to follow up, and we have been doing just that. But it does mean that we should not have it held over our heads as a threat or a criticism of all the things we didn’t do or did ‘wrong’.
And one other reminder: the survey was on the Moat housing estate in Pollards Hill and does not cover the 9,000+ people living in the rest of the ward for which we have no such surveys.
That’s what makes meetings like the one we had last night so important – real local people came in to the New Horizon Centre and told the truth about their lives. There were some heated debates and a lot of truth, and nearly everyone thanked us for holding the meeting on their way out.
With thanks to my friends from the NHS Southwest London ICB for putting on such a thought-provoking session this morning!
The views expressed in this article are those of the Post author.
